Often, "new and imroved" just means "new package" or "costs just a little bit more."

But one of the latest things in e-commerce would do more than be new to the state. It would improve our chances of profiting from technology.

The "Southern States' High Performance Network Grid" is a super-high-speed Internet system that links both coasts as part of the eCorridor, a nationwide technological framework that is pushing and will continue to push many sectors of the nation's economy.

The grid is helpful to educational and e-commerce entities because of its speed. How fast is it? Up to 10,000 times faster than a residential Internet connection. That's buzzing along the information superhighway, friends.

Not surprisingly, Arkansas is not part of the grid.

Gov. Mike Huckabee says getting the infrastructure to link to the grid will cost about $10 million.

The state can ill afford not to spend that money.

Getting wired into that technology would first benefit institutions of higher learning across this state. As we learned last week, no state has a lower percentage of adults with college degrees. So, anything we can do to improve higher education is something we should do.

Connecting to the grid would probably be easiest along the state's western edge. Naturally, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville would most likely first benefit from the connections, but it's not difficult to imagine that Arkansas Tech University would be close behind. Parochial, we're not. We want every university and college in the state to get this technology. What's good for higher education in this state is good for this state in general.

No doubt, this technology would also open doors for various commercial interests within the state's borders.

Arkansas will be an agricultural state as long as farmers grow rice and soybeans, and Arkansas will host its share of tourists who like getting out on lakes and into national forests.

But this state's economy must evolve with the nation's, and e-commerce is one of those ways that we must embrace sooner rather than later. Jobs that are going overseas might as well come to Arkansas, shouldn't they? And they will have a better chance of coming here if this state's Internet technology is up to speed.

If Gov. Mike Huckabee asks the Legislature to fund the state's connection to this high-speed grid, our elected leaders should make that funding one of their top priorities.

Time is wasting, and we don't want to be stuck on an on-ramp to the information superhighway.